Jean Todt admits that Michael Schumacher was beaten by the sheer pace of Fernando Alonso and Renault at Silverstone.
Although Michael’s true potential was disguised by the time he spent trapped behind Kimi Raikkonen, Todt said that it would have been hard to take on Renault in a fair fight.
"It was two or three tenths, which is not a lot," said the Frenchman. "But if you multiply by 60 it makes 12-18 seconds. And definitely they were quicker yesterday in qualifying. Michael at the beginning probably could have been quicker if we would not have been behind Raikkonen, but he was behind.
"And then in four laps Alonso managed to take eight second on Michael, and that was the end of it. Fisichella passed Felipe in the pit stops. In a way it was a good move to have Michael able to pass Kimi at the second pit stops."
Todt conceded that Alonso’s consistent form has made the challenge for the championship ever more difficult.
"He’s scored 74 points out of 80. It’s remarkable. He’s quick, competitive, and reliable, so it’s made the things more difficult for the others. Michael has 51, so all depends on how will be the next 10 races."
Todt said that it was wrong to suggest that Schumacher’s pace in the recent Barcelona test had flattered only to deceive.
"Alonso was not there, if I remember well, in the Barcelona test. Then from one test track to another one, things are different. Some tyres are one circuit doesn’t mean they will be good on another circuit. We were competitive, but not enough to finish better than second and fifth with Michael and Felipe today.
He added that it wasn’t possible to judge whether Ferrari had suffered by missing the major Silverstone test.
"We will never know. I think we finished in front of most of the teams that did test in Silverstone. So simply I think we lost because we had one team who were quicker than us."
http://www.speedtv.com/articles/auto/formulaone/26324/The Stig
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